PATIENT COMPLIANCE???

I read an article by Dr. Kevin this morning that makes my blood boil. Apparently Doctors are concerned about "patient" compliance. Patient compliance, as in "We are Gods and you lowly patients must follow what we say to the letter or we will fire you. You may NOT disagree or refuse to take whatever nasty drug we want you to regardless of how it affects you." I have a question for you Doctors; What about YOUR compliance with OUR wishes and the LAW?

Anybody who has read this blog and others about Versed use will know what I'm talking about. One of the wonderful things about Versed is patient cooperation, according to literature. I did a whole post on "cooperation" as it pertains to medical care. Medical people are NOT LOOKING FOR COOPERATION! What they want is abject obedience. This assumes that the patient is not a human being, merely a medical entity. They don't want cooperation, they demand you follow their dictates, immediately, to the letter, regardless of what you the patient feel about any of it. You the patient are to do as they say OR ELSE! Well, just who the hell do they think they are?

OK, so why do we have informed consent laws, just as if the patient was in charge of their own body? Why don't you Doctors, nurses etc. COMPLY with our wishes? Why is it always always about us following YOUR wishes? There are laws to insure that Doctors follow the patients directives, which are NOT being enforced or even addressed any more. I am NOT a possession of the medical field. For some reason I am having a really hard time getting this message across! You do as WE say, not vice versa! I am NOT a lower life form subject to YOUR whims!

It is a minor issue to me whether my EMPLOYEES, (sub-contractor, general contractor or whatever other term I need to use to explain my relationship with medical professionals) like my decisions. You can be replaced. YOUR JOB is to LISTEN to me, and make suggestions as to what can be done about whatever problem I present! *I* choose whether or not your preferred course of action is acceptable to me. Just because I pay you an absurd amount of money to diagnose the problem, and/or correct it, doesn't mean that I give up my autonomy and life TO YOU! For the life of me I can't figure out why this is such a complicated issue! Patient rights laws are there to PREVENT this kind of authoritarian BS, yet here we are with "Patient Compliance" an issue in the 21st century. Respect is a TWO WAY street...

If you don't like it too damn bad. Health care reform shouldn't be all about how to force health care decisions on every one. Sure we all need help from time to time. This help should be available, especially in light of the horrendous cost of such help. However, medical people should be able to understand that THEY are NOT in charge of the patient. The patient is in charge. It's their body and mind, it's their quality of life, and its not like it's all for FREE is it. If it were free, then maybe there would be an expectation of following orders as reciprocity for free care... Make sense?

For all of you medical people who feel that you are our DICTATOR and that you deserve not only obscene amounts of money to provide "help" (please look up the definition of "help" and see what that means) but you also demand crawling subservience, unquestioning obedience and hat-tipping deference from your serfs, you need your head examined.

I have to go now. My Senators are looking at med mal tort reform today. We need to have a way to enforce patients rights, which right now are completely in disarray judging by all this "PATIENT compliance" talk, so I am not in favor of tort reform! How else are we patients to get compliance from MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS? They won't follow the law (patient rights and autonomy) and it has gotten so bad that they are writing articles on OUR compliance, omitting anything at all about THEIR compliance! You medical people are OUT OF CONTROL talking about "patient compliance." The reality is that YOU PEOPLE should be talking about how to deal with "patient AUTONOMY!" (look up autonomy and then come back and draw a written diagram for me putting patient compliance into the equation) Got to make some calls.